Ever-Changing Constants
by Red Nightmare14
Summary: They say your mark takes the shape of your other half's soul. Peter's mark is constant, Johnny's is ever-changing.


**A/N: This is based of the timeline given in 'a brief timeline (of a sort)' by TheLionGirl. TheLionGirl, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I didn't ask for permission before using the timeline but I didn't know how to ask you. If you want me to take this down, I will. I apologise profoundly for not asking beforehand.**

* * *

Peter's 15, and Gwen Stacy is his soulmate. Her mark is a bird with its wings outstretched, and it circles around Peter's left wrist. Peter thinks it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen – other than Gwen, of course.

They found each other in a biology lecture, which Peter was technically too young for but the professor had made an exception. They sat next to each other and didn't talk for a while, just listening to the professor talking about DNA structures and new discoveries being made about mutants from Professor Xavier – a man which Peter held in high esteem alongside Tony Stark and Reed Richards. It was only when everyone was getting up for a lunch break that Peter found out that Gwen was his soulmate. He'd tripped over his bag on the floor and fell into her arms, causing his sleeves to ride up. When Gwen saw his mark, she recognised it as her pet bird.

Peter's mark was on Gwen's right ankle. It was a test tube and a biochemistry text book. It suited Peter perfectly.

* * *

Johnny's 17, and his soul mark has yet to settle. Everyone says that it's normal, that marks don't usually settle until the early 20's, but Johnny can't help but feel a little bit uneasy.

It's just that, when Sue talks about her mark – a rocket ship on the back of her hand – she says that she can just _feel_ her soulmate through it. Johnny doesn't feel that. Sometimes he thinks that maybe, just maybe, he gets a hint of something, but then it fades as quickly as it appears. Johnny doesn't like it. He doesn't want to be like his aunt Marygay, whose mark is always changing and so has been married and divorced three times (working on number four) with a grown son that she doesn't see. He doesn't want to be like that.

But it won't be. Because Sue says it won't. Johnny has time, he's only seventeen of course. Johnny goes to bed with this in mind. It still doesn't ease his nerves.

* * *

Miles away, Peter Parker is bitten by a spider.

He thought about telling Harry, it was his dad's company that created the spider, after all. But somehow explaining to his best friend how he can suddenly walk on walls and lift several tons doesn't seem like the best way of going about it. Peter doesn't even think about telling Gwen. They've only known each other for a couple of weeks. Explaining to her that her soulmate suddenly has spider powers doesn't seem like the best way of making their relationship stay stable.

Peter pushes back any other thoughts that say that not telling Gwen is even worse. That honesty is the best way of going about their relationship. But Peter ignores this.

* * *

Though Johnny doesn't know it – for a precious few hours, his soul mark takes a shape.

It's slow, but steady, forming from his shoulders down his back. It doesn't hurt. It never does. Which is why Johnny doesn't wake up. For a moment, a vague shape can be made, but mostly it's a mess of black ink that no amount of deciphering can understand.

It's gone by the time Johnny wakes up in the morning. He never knew about it.

* * *

Uncle Ben is **dead** , _and it's all Peter's fault_.

If he'd only thought about his family rather than money then Uncle Ben would still be alive. If he'd only used his powers for good rather than for money then Uncle Ben would still be alive. If he'd only just listened to the attendant instead of shirking responsibility then Uncle Ben would still be alive. If he'd only been faster at rescuing Uncle Ben then he'd still be alive. It's Peter fault. It's all Peter's fault. He should have been more responsible. He has the power to help others, and damn it if Peter's not going to do so.

With great power, comes great responsibility. Peter takes the advice to heart and never lets it go.

* * *

Sue's soulmate is Reed Richards. Johnny may be a little jealous. At least _Ben_ hasn't found his soulmate either.

Of course it would be one of his aunt's boarders. Somebody Sue can interact with every day. Reed's mark, which is on his neck, is a heart with a storm cloud surrounding it and the letter 'S' in the middle. Whether the 'S' stands for 'Sue' or 'Storm' doesn't matter. His sister has found her soulmate and Johnny has lost his confidant in talking about unfound soulmates.

Well, at least Reed's best friend Ben is in the same boat as he's in. They talk about it occasionally, in-between facing off at _Mario Kart_ while Sue and Reed are on another date.

* * *

Peter takes a job at the _Daily Bugle_ , photographing soul marks for the _Matched!_ section.

It beats dressing up as Spiderman and taking selfies for money. Gwen likes to come with Peter occasionally as people tend to be more accommodating to having their soul marks pictured when two soulmates who have already found each other are the ones taking the photograph. Maybe it's some kind of societal prejudice that Peter's just now found out now that people who have found their soulmates are treated better than those who haven't found their fated one yet.

It breaks Peter's heart when some people just don't find their soulmate, despite the _Matched!_ section helping out. It breaks his heart even more when the same person asks for their services again because their mark's changed. It's usually accompanied with black clothing and tears.

* * *

Except that he has – and Alicia is basically Ben's dream girl.

Johnny's seen Ben's mark on his chest on a particularly hot day. A beautiful and intrinsic sculpture of something famous that Johnny hasn't got the interest to find out. Ben finds his soulmate in a gallery and Johnny gets to witness their interaction first-hand (Sue and Reed are on another date in the university laboratory and Johnny doesn't want to intrude). Alicia is blind, which doesn't bother Ben, and the two talk about sculptures and paintings until Johnny gets bored and leaves the two together.

Johnny doesn't sees Alicia's mark. Apparently it's in the same place Ben's is so he'll never get to see it. Ben says it's an aeroplane, though. Johnny begins to think that maybe his personality's just not suitable for a mark to be present on his skin. Sue says he's being ridiculous.

* * *

Peter doesn't know what Harry's mark is (or if he even has one, but that's something Peter doesn't think about).

It would explain why Mr Osborne is so distant with Harry. Because if Harry doesn't have a soul mark, then he's doomed to die before he's in his twenties. That's what happens when somebody doesn't have a soul mark. They die.

Peter's thankful that both he and Gwen have soul marks. Peter couldn't imagine living a life without Gwen. She means too much to him.

* * *

Reed's talking about going up into space, and for once Johnny's listening.

Reed talks a lot about everything. Biology, physics, thermonuclear dynamics, the lot. Johnny doesn't listen because he doesn't have the interest Ben has, or the attention-span Sue has. But space is something Johnny is interested in and so his attention-span expands to include Reed's talk about rocket ships. He now knows why Sue's mark is a rocket ship. He thought it must have been something more than it simply representing Reed's job.

Johnny thinks about what his soulmate's mark might be – if he ever gets one. Maybe a car. He likes cars.

* * *

Peter's 17, and Gwen is dead. He finds himself holding his wrist a lot, tracing the slender bird with his fingers. Gwen is dead, but her soul mark is still there, and Peter hopes it never leaves.

Occasionally someone's mark might change, if their soul or personality or whatever causes the soul marks to appear changes. Peter doesn't want his mark to change. He wants to be like Aunt May, whose soul mark is the exact same as when Uncle Ben died. That proves true love. It proves that Aunt May was dedicated enough to Uncle Ben that the universe has decided that one soulmate is enough for her.

Peter likes to think he was dedicated enough to Gwen for his soul mark to never change. MJ says that it's more than likely that it will change because Peter's young and the universe wants him to be happy. Peter doesn't agree.

* * *

So Johnny might never find his soulmate, doomed to be one of those people whose soul mark is ever-changing. Who cares? Not Johnny, that's for sure.

Sue cares, but Johnny thinks that's just because she doesn't want Johnny to end up like Aunt Marygay (working on her fifth marriage now). Reed reminds Johnny that he's only nineteen and that he has until his twenty-two for his mark to appear. Then again, Reed also reminds Johnny that the statistics are skewed in terms of how many people have soul marks. It's a lot lower than what people tend to believe, otherwise Aunt Marygay wouldn't have been married as many times as she has. The suicide rate for people without soulmates is what skews the statistics, Reed says.

Johnny isn't comforted about that little fact.

* * *

Peter's 19, and his soul mark is changing.

He doesn't know why it waited two years for it change. Usually if someone has lost their soulmate then their mark will change within six months of losing them. Aunt May is thrilled for him to have a second chance. MJ keeps telling him to keep her updated. (Peter thinks that she's hoping for his mark to represent her, as her mark is a DNA strand that _could_ technically represent him. Peter wouldn't mind that.)

Peter isn't sure whether he should be happy about this or not. He can't tell yet what his new soul mark will be. He hopes it won't be a bird.

* * *

Johnny's 21 when his soul mark finally settles. It shifts and writhes on his skin, until finally there's a spider, sharp and angular, that spreads across his back, its legs reaching out across his shoulders and spine. Johnny wonders what his soulmate's like, to have a mark like that.

Reed says that it's unusual for marks to be as large as his is. He says that it means that his soulmate has a lot of personality, a lot of layers. Johnny isn't so sure. If that's the case, then why didn't it appear before now? Sue's more interested in why it's a spider, and worries that it may mean that Johnny's soulmate keeps pet spiders and that's she afraid of them. Johnny laughs at that as Sue isn't really scared of spiders, she just wants an excuse for Reed to pay more attention to her rather than this space project. Ben says that maybe the reason why Johnny's soul mark has only now appeared is that Johnny's soulmate is really young. Johnny doesn't like this theory. It means that quite possibly he's ten years older than his soulmate and he doesn't want that.

Johnny's just glad that his mark appeared before he turned twenty-two. People in school looked at him funny when he said that his mark hadn't settled. He's noticed that many of them have soul marks that are of cars.

* * *

Peter's new mark is a storm cloud, dark and strong, different shades of grey swirling together. It's beautiful, in its own way, but Peter can't help but be bitter that his wrist is blank.

If it were possible for another mark to form alongside his first, then Peter would have wished for that. But, that's impossible, so Peter was hoping for his new mark to be on his wrist like his first one. He liked looking at the mark whenever he could. But, of course, the universe had it against him and his new mark was on his inner right thigh, so he couldn't look at his mark in a socially acceptable way unless he was in the shower. The mark itself was indeed beautiful, he knew that because MJ said so when she insisted to see his mark, no matter what compromising position he had to be in for her to see it. Thankfully, Aunt May was content with Peter's description of the mark and didn't demand to see it.

Peter himself was content with pretending that the mark didn't exist. It obviously didn't match up with MJ, so Peter was happy to wait until he met somebody who's like a storm cloud.

* * *

Johnny's in space, floating among the stars, when it happens.

It hurts. When he felt the radiation sinking into his skin, Johnny knew that he shouldn't have come along with his sister, her soulmate, and her soulmate's best friend. Just because they needed a four-man crew didn't mean that they should have had to settle for a twenty-one year old who wasn't even a genius like they were. For a while, all Johnny heard was his sister's screams at Reed of "what's happening? Reed! What's happening" over and over again. Then he felt Ben's protective arms attempting to shield him, but of course it was already too late.

Johnny woke up on fire. He couldn't see his sister, Reed was somehow stretched out over several yards, and Ben was unrecognisable. Johnny couldn't help but feel that as far as mutations went, he got off pretty lightly on this one.

* * *

Peter swears that he can feel his soul mark burning, and then his soul mark is moving, changing, years after it's settled. When it's done he looks down and sees flames right above his heart.

He first noticed it when he was having a shower and realised that his mark was gone. Aunt May spent hours trying to calm Peter down from his panicking of "their dead, their dead!" Peter couldn't sleep that night. He felt strange, like a fire was trying to sink into his skin, but the tingling sort rather than the burning kind. If that made sense. This time, he can show Aunt May and MJ his soul mark without feeling embarrassed about it.

Peter was still happy to wait for his soulmate. Only this time he was looking for someone with a fiery personality instead of a stormy one.

* * *

Johnny knows that Crystal isn't his soulmate, that she hasn't found her soulmate either, but he loves her anyway.

She's beautiful, in a way that Johnny can't describe. She isn't repulsed by Johnny's mark of a spider. She doesn't ask questions. She just wings it. Her mark is blurry and is on her foot. Johnny likes to joke that her soulmate's Sonic the Hedgehog, ignoring the fact that the mark doesn't match up with him. People have made relationships work even if they weren't soulmates. If they can do it, then Johnny and Crystal can.

Johnny pushes the thought of the divorce rate with people who weren't soulmates out of his head. He won't be like them. He can make it work.

* * *

Peter hears about the Human Torch and wonders. But he can't be that lucky.

Parker Luck won't allow that to be the case. The Human Torch can't be his soulmate, even if he is on fire like Peter's soul mark is. MJ likes the joke about it, and insists that if they are soulmates that Peter should set off fireworks in a bizarre twist of events. Peter counters that if the Human Torch is his soulmate then he should throw a book at him, as the soul mark meant to represent Peter must be the same as Gwen's was. Their conversation stops there.

Peter looks at a shirtless photo of Johnny Storm and stops breathing for a moment. Johnny Storm's soul mark is a spider.

* * *

Crystal's soulmate is Pietro Maximoff.

It makes sense, he supposes. Pietro goes fast, so Crystal's soul mark represents that. Pietro is definitely Crystal's soulmate. His mark is a crystal quartz, indicative of Crystal's name, and Johnny is definitely not Crystal's soulmate with his spider soul mark. It's for the best. They wouldn't have worked out anyway. The divorce rate for non-soulmate marriages is too high for the chances to be in their favour.

Johnny puts the ring he bought in his underwear drawer. He swears to never be in another committed relationship until he finds his soulmate. His heart just can't handle it.

* * *

Felicia's pretty, but Peter's always been a romantic at heart. Besides – those claws? _Not fun_.

The signs were there from the start. Felicia never accepted the flowers Peter bought, refused to eat chocolate (maybe they were bad for her, she is a cat after all), didn't turn up for any of their dates except those were Peter promised to have sex with her. That just wasn't a relationship Peter could handle.

Peter knows it wouldn't have worked out. He never saw a future with her like he had with Gwen.

* * *

Johnny's made his peace. Who needs a soulmate? He's got his family.

It's been three years since his soul mark appeared in the shape of a spider. Occasionally Johnny hears reports about someone called Spiderman and gets excited. But he never sees Spiderman because Spiderman works alone. Nobody knows who he is (except, maybe Tony Stark who knows who everyone is, but he isn't telling) so Johnny couldn't contact him as a civilian. Right now, his sister has just told him that she's pregnant and Ben's getting married, so Johnny's happy to forget about soulmates for the moment and focus on being an uncle and preparing for Ben and Alicia's wedding. It's about damn time the two got round to getting married.

Johnny isn't ashamed to say that he cried a little during Ben's wedding. If everybody assumes it's because a family friend is getting married, then Johnny doesn't correct them.

* * *

Peter's swinging past skyscrapers, enjoying the thrill, when a flurry of flames swoops past him.

A flurry is the only way he can describe it, even if it's usually used to describe snow and the Human Torch obviously isn't Iceman. The two look at each other for a moment, distracted from everything by each other. The fact that both of them stopped means that they both know. They know that they are soulmates.

Peter's scared. What if Johnny's repulsed by him? Johnny is perfect in every way, and Peter isn't. And yet, it just feels right.

* * *

Johnny's 26, and he's just found his soulmate.

What the hell? He doesn't know who Spiderman is, but Johnny just knows that he's his soulmate. Call it an existential crisis from everyone currently born in the family having found and now married their soulmate, but Johnny is willing to try. He didn't honestly expect his hunch to be true. The moment he looked at that mask, he know that Spiderman was his soulmate.

Johnny now knows that Spiderman isn't his soulmate. Peter Parker is. And he couldn't be happier.


End file.
